Problem space - Natural disasters and global environmental change
Addressing natural hazards, with serious consequences on a regional level, FOCUS centres on major external threats to greater areas (outside and within the European Union) that may shape future roles of the EU as a comprehensive security provider: They can cause humanitarian crises of scales requiring a wide spectrum of responses, as they affect infrastructures and human environment. Moreover, interactions of different hazards, multi-hazards, technological hazards, and the fact that human activity can initiate or influence processes and events, will play an increasing role.
Future research, therefore, should act as a catalyst in the form of meta-projects integrating results from EU funded and other projects on natural hazards and their security aspects. However, this would require enhanced accessibility of previous studies and their results. Improved dissemination strategies will be required. Other topics could be anthropogenic (or “man-made”) natural disasters and multi-disciplinary scenarios of maximum credible natural events. Those scenarios could contribute to identifying maximum possible damage from a combination of primary (destruction by shockwave), secondary (e.g. fires), and tertiary (e.g. supply chain damage, loss of production) effects for a given region, nation, or the EU as a whole.
Addressing natural hazards, with serious consequences on a regional level, FOCUS centres on major external threats to greater areas (outside and within the European Union) that may shape future roles of the EU as a comprehensive security provider: They can cause humanitarian crises of scales requiring a wide spectrum of responses, as they affect infrastructures and human environment. Moreover, interactions of different hazards, multi-hazards, technological hazards, and the fact that human activity can initiate or influence processes and events, will play an increasing role.
Future research, therefore, should act as a catalyst in the form of meta-projects integrating results from EU funded and other projects on natural hazards and their security aspects. However, this would require enhanced accessibility of previous studies and their results. Improved dissemination strategies will be required. Other topics could be anthropogenic (or “man-made”) natural disasters and multi-disciplinary scenarios of maximum credible natural events. Those scenarios could contribute to identifying maximum possible damage from a combination of primary (destruction by shockwave), secondary (e.g. fires), and tertiary (e.g. supply chain damage, loss of production) effects for a given region, nation, or the EU as a whole.